Sports

Wednesday, February 2, 2000

Pecos beats Fabens for first victory of season

By JON FULBRIGHTStaff WriterPECOS, Feb. 2, 2000 -- It's over.

The third time really was the charm for the Pecos Eagle girls basketball
team, as they got their first win in 20 tries this season, beating the
Fabens Wildcats by a 50-36 final score Tuesday night at the Pecos High
School gym.

"Our girls should have won more games this year, but tonight they made
up their minds they weren't going to lose," said a happy Eagles' coach
Brian Williams. "They played together well and passed the ball more than
they had before."

What made Williams even happier was the fact that while the Eagles'
first team helped get Pecos out to as much as a 17-point lead in the third
period, it was the Eagles' second team that came on an stopped a 21-1 run
by Fabens to end the third quarter.

"I can't say enough about the second group. They're getting a lot of
time in practice and tonight I said to them `Hey, I'm not going to take
you out. You're going to have to go to work out there."

The Eagles had lost twice to Fabens already this season, by a 47-44
score in the Monahans Sandhills Tournament and by a 95-90 score in five
overtimes last month in Fabens. Maricela Arenivas scored 41 points that
night, but was held to just three on Tuesday against the Wildcats.

Instead, it was sophomore Christina Arenivas and senior Katrina Quiroz
that came up with the big plays to start the fourth quarter, after Fabens'
Paula Portillo and Susie Ramirez led a comeback that cut Pecos' lead to
38-32. Quiroz came up with a steal and hit one of two foul shots after
being fouled by Olga Portillo, and Arenivas than connected on a side jumper
to get Pecos back out to a nine-point lead.

That's where it stayed until the final minute of play, when Alexa Marquez
and Arenivas scored off steals to give the Eagles their first win since
a victory at Fabens last season, a string of 26 games overall.

Marquez' basket capped an 11-point night, most of that on outside shots,
after she went scoreless last Friday in a loss at Canutillo. "Alexa did
a heck of a job tonight. Those were the shots she was getting at Canutillo,
but she just couldn't hit them. Tonight, she did," Williams said.

A 3-pointer by Marquez and two baskets by Christina Arenivas helped
the Eagles get out to their first big lead in the second period. They were
part of an 11-3 run by Pecos that turned a 12-9 lead after one period into
a 23-12 advantage.

The Eagles led by 10 at the half, 25-15, and were up 30-20 in the third
period when junior post Philonicus Fobbs came up with a seven-point streak,
including a rare five-point play. She scored twice off a lay-up and was
fouled by Jessica Parras on the second one, then rebounded her own missed
free throw and scored on a 10-foot jumper where she was fouled again. This
time Fobbs hit the free throw to give Pecos a 37-30 lead.

Ramirez, who was hot from the outside early when Fabens held their only
leads of the night, and Portillo, then took advantage of some sloppy ball-handing
by Pecos to get the Wildcats back into the game. The Eagle managed just
one foul shot by Jessica Rodriguez in the final four minutes of the period,
with both the first and second teams struggling at times.

But after the end of the period the Eagles settled down, shutting out
Portillo the rest of the way and holding Ramirez to just one jumper with
three minutes left in the game.

Fobbs led Pecos with 12 points, while Ramirez had 17 and Portillo 14
for Fabens, which like the Eagles, is now 1-7 in District 2-4A play.

Pecos also won Tuesday's freshman game by a 31-20 final score, while
Fabens edged the Eagles' in the junior varsity contest, 38-36.

The Eagles play their final road game of the season this Friday at Clint,
and close out their 1999-2000 schedule at home next Tuesday, against San
Elizario.

Free throw woes cost Eagles shot at win

By JON FULBRIGHTStaff WriterPECOS, Feb. 2, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagles almost pulled off a sweep Tuesday
night at the Pecos High School gym. But while the girls were able to end
their long losing streak by getting their first win of the 1999-2000 season,
the Fabens Wildcat boys were able to rally in the second half of their
game against Pecos to beat the Eagles, by a 60-56 final score.

Manny Solis and Rigo Estrada got open for a pair of 3-pointers each
in the third period, when the Wildcats turned a 30-24 lead into a 44-38
advantage, and poor foul shooting by the Eagles cost them down the stretch,
as they missed four of five foul shots in the fourth quarter, including
the front end of two one-and-one attempts.

"The one-and-ones kill you right at the end," said coach Tino Acosta.
"We fought a valiant fight. The first time these guys beat us out there
bad (88-65), and it would have been easy to come in and quit but we didn't,
and that speaks highly of the character of our young men."

The missed foul shots in the final period allowed Fabens to maintain
a lead throughout most of the quarter, though a 3-pointer by Alex Garcia
and a rebound tip-in by Hector Rodriguez tied the game at 49-all with 4:18
to play.

Fabens, which was 10-for-12 from the foul line, then got two free throws
from Luis Loya at the 3:55 mark, while Rodriguez hit one of his two foul
shots 20 seconds later. Loya then scored on a lay-up while Saul Garcia
missed from the outside for the Eagles on their next trip downcourt.

Cesar Estrada then hit a driving lay-up, and after another Pecos miss,
Alonzo Favela scored on a rebound basket to put the Wildcats up 57-50 with
1:34 to play.

Favela was fouled by Garcia on the play, but missed his free throw _
Fabens' first foul line miss of the night - and the Eagles then staged
one last comeback. Adrian Rayos scored three straight lay-ups and took
a charge from Solis, while Fabens' second free throw miss, on one of two
shots by Estrada at the 1:04 mark, got Pecos back to within 58-56 with
20.2 seconds to play.

But Solis didn't miss from the line six seconds later, after he was
fouled by Jacob Weidner. He sank both ends of the 1-and-1 to make it a
four-point game, and the Eagles missed on two tries downcourt in the closing
seconds.

"They shot the ball well. We took our chances on stopping No. 12 (Solis)
and the other ones hit their shots," Acosta said.

With the 6-foot-4 Favela and 6-5 Allen Tacker, the Wildcats had the
size advantage inside, but Rodriguez was able to work around the Fabens'
front line for a series of baskets, especially in the first half. He had
12 of his game-high 17 points in the opening quarters, and the Eagles led
almost all the way after steals and lay-ups by Alex Garcia and Daniel Terrazas
erased an early 2-0 Fabens lead.

The Eagles led by three at the half and were up 30-24 after a three-point
play by Saul Garcia, when Solis and Estrada started getting open on the
wing for 3-pointers. Their first two turned a 32-28 Pecos lead into a 34-32
Fabens advantage, and their last two in the final minute of the period
helped the Wildcats open up a six-point gap.

"I thought at times we executed real well. We just had a couple of breakdowns,"
Acosta said. "But I thought we showed a lot of heart, showed a lot of character
and showed a lot of courage out there, and there's nothing else we can
ask of them."

Rayos finished with 12 points and Alex Garcia had 11, while Solis, who
had 29 points in last month's win, led Fabens with 13 this time around.
The loss drops Pecos to 0-6 in district and 0-20 on the season going into
Friday's game at Clint. Pecos also won the junior varsity game Tuesday
by a 59-52 score, while Fabens won the freshman contest. No score was available
for the ninth graders' game.

Golf season opens Friday for Eagles

PECOS, Feb. 2, 2000 -- The weather outside isn’t cooperating right now,
but the Pecos Eagle golfers are hoping things improve by this weekend,
when the Spring 2000 golf season will tee off for the girls at the San
Angelo Invitational.

Pecos’ girls play pretty much their regular pre-district schedule of
the past few seasons for 2000, while the boys have added a couple of sub-varsity
tournaments to their spring schedule, which opens on Feb. 10 with a junior
varsity round at Midland. Varsity play for the boys begins the following
day with the Big Spring Invitational, which the girls also will participate
in.

The move to District 2-4A last year helped the Eagles’ golf teams as
much as any Pecos High School squad. Not only did the boys earn their first
regional tournament berth in 14 years and the girls their first-ever team
trip to regionals, but Pecos’ `B’ team golfers also captured the second
place regional berths for the district.

This year figures to be a little harder for Pecos, which hosted one
of the two rounds of the 2-4A tourney last season. This year’s district
tournament will be played on consecutive days, April 3-4, at Vista Hills
Country Club and Emerald Springs Country Club in El Paso. Regional play
would be held in late April in San Angelo.

While the girls travel there this weekend, coach Kim Anderson’s boys
will make their San Angelo trip on March 10-11, and have four other 36-hole
tournaments on their schedule, next weekend in Big Spring, Feb. 25-26 at
Midland and in March at Fort Stockton and Van Horn.

The girls have one other trip to El Paso besides the district tournament,
on March 24-25 for the Rocky Mountain Invitational. The fancy new name
is for the old El Paso Invitational the Eagles have participated in for
the past several years. “They have a new coach out there and he changed
the name of the tournament,” girls’ coach Tina Hendrick explained.

After San Angelo and Big Spring, the girls other two-day tournaments
will be on Feb. 25-26 at Fort Stockton and March 10-11 in Andrews. They
also have a one-day tournament set for Alpine, the week before 2-4A competition
at El Paso.